DREAMERS GAME SEVEN M.C.M.a.R.t.S.H.L. (Sunday, February 15th, 2004) Attendees: Everyone except Simon (Robert). That's... Omeed (Jim), Gabriel (Joe), Dodge (Jeff), Hank (Alan), Christine (Michele), Jack (Paul), Peter (John), Nathan (Darren) and Ryan (Mark). We begin by rolling up past the gate and onto the grounds where the mansion lay in the middle of the swamp in England. There is a long narrow expanse of causeway that connects us to the house. It is sufficiently dark enough that if we drive slowly and with the lights off we should make it across alright. We take the two cars. Hank drives car one with Dodge, Ryan, Omeed, and Gabriel. Car two is driven by Nathan with his dog (Crowly) and Jack, plus the evil mirror of doom taking up the entire back seat. Midway down the causeway, something lands on the lead car, bends the roof in, sinks its claws into the vehicle, and lifts the vehicle off the ground. All four passengers leap to safety on the causeway, with Omeed managing to land on his feet. The creature is identified by my razor sharp senses as a sort of Wyvern-like creature. It drops the car in the swamp water off the path and circles around. I wait to see if the guys can get back into the car, but they take too long and when the thing makes a sweep at us, I throw the car into reverse and successfully drive backwards to the tree line and safety. The creature sweeps the area a while and then vanishes back into the fog. Since there was gunfire during this brief encounter, we know the people from the mansion will investigate. We decide to set up an ambush at our end of the causeway. Christine shows up now. Sure enough, a vehicle approaches, but hank (who has no Arcane) is too visible and they target him. The two people in the car proceed to cut loose with one semi and one full automatic weapon. They are taken down by a combination of bullets, dog-bites, and one horrendous boot-to-the-head by Dodge. He kills the man with a single kick, but Jack "Miracle Man" Simms does his voodoo and brings the guy back to life! He'll be paralyzed, but he's alive. Omeed interrogates a live, concious, unparalyzed catpive and determines there are eight others in the house. My dog sniffs the vehicle and determines it is covered in Wyvern scent. We bury the mirror away from our vehicle to hide it, and then we take the wyvern-scented vehicle and drive across the causeway and to the mansion. Upon arrival two men are sighted in the windows upstairs. Gabriel uses his evil mind-power to instruct a man upstairs to take a stroll out the window, which he promptly does. He lands on a vehicle out front and injures himself. Ryan uses synergy to lend Omeed's teleport power to himself, Dodge, and Christine. Eventually, they will teleport upstairs and do combat, where Christine will take out one man (Because Mark can't make a roll to save his life). Downstairs, Dr. jack proceeds to disarm and fist fight with the guy who jumped out the window. Gabriel retrieves the automatic weapon. Nathan barely avoids a hail of gunfire (Because Mark can't make a roll to save his life). Hank grabs a vehicle and backs it into the front door. Nathan hops in another car and drives it around back of the house. Dr. Jack drugs the injured man outside into unconsciousness. Inside Dodge, Omeed and Ryan break in doors looking for men with guns. Our extra senses tell us that all of the troube is concentrated on the fist floor near the entrance. A protracted gun battle takes place in which Hank gets one guy to surrender at gun point, the upstairs crew duel with a bunch of gunmen in the grand hall, and Nathan tries to distract them from the back door. The battle is capped off when a stunned man is kicked over the railing by Christine where he lay in a heap in the grand hall. (Did I mention Mark can't make a roll to save his life?) Jack has to put the whammy on the severely injured guy and (I guess) saved him again. We search and determine there is still one man unaccounted for. There is a set of stairs that go down into the basement, to a torture room/laboratory, prison cells loaded with three abused captives who we must tend to, and the final gunman who misses Hank in a narrow corridor at point-blank range with an automatic weapon (because M.C.M.a.R.t.S.H.L.). Once he is brought down, we raid the place of all of its goodies. There is an interlude in which Omeed attempts to impesonate personnel on the grounds because there are incoming phone calls. He seems to fool Sayed (who says he'll call back within 5 minutes) but then within a minute of that call we get a call from Gavigan. Omeed attempts to fool Gavigan into thinking that Sayed is coming for him, but it appears to fail. We get out of the place with a load of goods and six cars (plus a 7th... my rental). We get out of the area and drop off criminals near jails and injured at hospitals, and then we run like heck out of town. Ryan wants to learn forbiddn lore, so he proceeds to read up on things and figure out how to operate the mirror. Then comes more trouble... He uses the mirror to scrye on Toufek Al Sayed. Al Sayed notices he's being scryed on and comments to those looking on "Ah, so you have figured out how to operate the mirror. Very interesting..." That leads to the incident in which we decide to spy on Gavigan. This one goes even worse. Gavigan whispers, "Tell me where you are...". Ryan, entranced, proceeds to say, "We are in a van going--" whereupon he is tackled by Omeed and snapped out of it. We are headed back to the mansion. We are close to the "Dark of the Moon", the period in which the terrible sacrifices will take place. Al Sayed is the "Mouth of the Black Pharoh", the one who leads this ceremony. On the grounds of the mansion, in an area we have not yet had time to explore, lay the ceremonial spot. We go there now to chew some bubblegum and kick some ass.